Strange times for women echoed in Sullivan-Beeman paintings
Oct
26
2017
These are disorienting times, as a parade of women spills forth the secrets and lies they have been porting in private, some for decades. Stories rife with shame, collusion, dominance, desperation all tap distressing emotions. Upside-down post-feminist realities careen, as well, through the fantasy portraits of Los Angeles artist Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman. Sullivan-Beeman is soon to ...
Hollywood harassment nothing new, says Barrie Chase 8
The brouhaha over movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s decades of inappropriate sexual aggression with actresses brought back sixty-year-old memories from Barrie Chase, one of the most superb dancers to work in film and television. Her story concerns Arthur Freed, the renowned MGM producer of an A-list of movie-musical titles, a revered high-quality player — oddly similar ...
Ticket to ride: ‘L.A. Documentaries at Union Station’
A wonderful idea: a film screening series in the noble and ghostly ticketing hall at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Where the teaming masses purchased train tickets, over decades, to all destinations north, south, and east. Lately the historic hall has emerged as a creative space. There, in 2013, photographer Dana Ross captured Yuval ...
Motown magic to Malibu: Mary Wilson, Martha Reeves @ Pepperdine 1
Sep
17
2017
It’s difficult to witness the decay of present-day Detroit and reckon that the city was a booming factory town in the 1960s. While Detroit’s auto manufacturers put America in the driver’s seat, Motown Records flooded dance floors and came as close to dominating Top 40 radio as any domestic record label in history. Berry Gordy, ...
Baryshnikov praises Pam Tanowitz
It’s whippped cream — dolloped onto Pam Tanowitz Dance receiving the Baryshnikov Art Center’s Cage Cunningham Award. It’s the high praise BAC Artistic Director Mikhail Baryshnikov gave in noting the ‘distinct intellectual journey’ of the choreographer’s work. “We have followed Pam’s work throughout the years, and are greatly impressed with her intelligence, determination, and the ...
Showing & telling the difficult: Laura Aguilar @ Vincent Price Art Museum
Sep
13
2017
The wonderful Vincent Price Art Museum on the campus of East Los Angeles College has as its Pacific Standard Time LA/LA exhibit, “Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell,” opening Sept 16, the first comprehensive retrospective of the challenging photographer’s works. A series of talks and community events accompanies the show. This exhibition tells the story of ...
Tales of neuroses from Roz Chast
New Yorker magazine cartoonist Roz Chast has a new book. That makes me anxious. It’s not that I’m jealous. I would be totally fine, but I couldn’t sleep last night. I think the waiter at that restaurant was looking at me funny. Then my neighbors were keeping me up … argh! Chast’s new book, Going ...
Smart, independent, passionate: Jeanne Moreau’s film personae on view in Cinematheque series
Sep
1
2017
Well, I didn’t even know she died. I can be forgiven as my own mother died the prior day. I was preoccupied. Still this eternal artist was not meant to perish. The magisterial French actress, the queen of assertive intellect and a noble sensuality, film star Jeanne Moreau (Jan 23, 1928 – July 31, 2017) ...
Miss Carmen regrets … 2
Aug
19
2017
“I am truly honored to receive the Kennedy Center Honors Award and look forward to attending the ceremony at the Kennedy Center. In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our existing leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, ...
Miss Ruth in the Valley 4
Aug
7
2017
Ruth St. Denis, featured in a newspaper story on elderly fitness, strikes a Denishawn pose for a photographer. Verso text: “Pictured are Frankie Van, owner of Frankie Van’s Health Club, 3717 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Studio City, along with famous modern dancer Ruth St. Denis. Ms. Denis once lived in the Valley and operated a school ...